Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 96, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, has your inbox been as busy as mine the past few days?, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I also have for you Hollow Knight: Silksong (finally!), Instagram on iPad (also finally!), a spinoff for The Office, and more.
And a programming note: David’s taking over Installer again next week! It’s been a blast writing the newsletter while he’s been away. Thanks to everyone for sharing their recommendations and nice notes while I’ve been steering the ship!
(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What do you want to know more about? What awesome tricks do you know that everyone else should? What app should everyone be using? Drop a line to [email protected]. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)
- Hue Essentials. Philips Hue has a new lineup of cheaper smart lightbulbs starting at $25 per bulb (or $15 each as part of a four-pack), making them much cheaper than its flagship color-changing bulbs. Parent company Signify also announced a new bridge, more new lights, and a wired video doorbell.
- Hollow Knight: Silksong. Team Cherry’s years-in-the-making Hollow Knight sequel is finally here, and early indications all point to it being a worthy follow-up. There’s still a lot to discover about it, but if you figure out who Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone voices in the game, can you let me know?
- Instagram for iPad. Nearly 15 years after Instagram initially launched for iOS, the social network now has an official iPad app. But the app has a video-focused twist: when you open it up, the app shows you a feed of short-form Reels. Android tablets will be getting the new design soon, Meta says.
- The Paper. Peacock’s spinoff of The Office debuted in a big batch drop this week, and apparently it’s actually good, even if it takes a few episodes to hit its stride. It’s already been renewed for a second season, too.
- Samsung Galaxy S25 FE. Samsung has a new model in its more affordable FE line, with the S25 FE taking some inspiration from the S25 Edge by being thinner and lighter than its predecessor. The company also launched new S11 and S11 Ultra tablets with a redesigned S Pen.
- Remarkable Paper Pro Move. Remarkable has a new E Ink digital notepad, and with a skinny 7.3-inch screen, it’s one you can theoretically drop into your pocket. I’m a big fan of small paper notebooks, so the idea of using an E Ink one seems really fun to me.
- Chipolo’s Loop. This item tracker and Chipolo’s new Card tracker both have rechargeable batteries instead of requiring replacements. They’ll last up to six months on a charge and work with Apple’s Find My and Google’s Find Hub networks.
- Mophie Max Headphones Charging Stand. Mophie’s new charging stand is designed to charge your AirPods Max and AirPods Pro (or another Qi-compatible device) simultaneously. To charge the AirPods Max, you’ll plug in a USB-C dongle and plop the headphones into the stand, which will automatically put them into sleep mode. Seems super handy, though it’s a little expensive at $150.
Today I’m featuring Paulus Schoutsen, founder of the popular open-source smart home automation platform Home Assistant and president of the Open Home Foundation. With so much smart home news coming out of the IFA 2025 conference this week, I figured this would be the perfect time to feature his homescreen. I was very curious how someone so involved in the smart home world actually uses their phone day to day — unsurprisingly, Paulus has put a lot of thought into his homescreen setup.
Side note: I originally got these responses from Paulus about his iOS homescreen in August, but he told me this week that he’s since switched over to a Google Pixel. He says the setup is largely the same, with one notable change to use more web apps.
Image: Paulus Schoutsen
The phone: I have an iPhone 15 Pro.
The wallpaper: The background is the blurred version of my Lock Screen wallpaper, which is a graphic of Home Assistant. I never liked busy wallpapers because it makes it hard to read the letters.
The apps: The icons on my homescreen are limited as I try to limit my screen usage.
- The widget at the top is a Smart Stack showing battery, calendar, weather, photos. I had to disable suggested widgets because Apple was showing me ads for McDonald’s powered by Yelp and DoorDash.
- Home Assistant is on my homescreen because it’s the best smart home platform in the world.
- I have no social media apps on my phone, and only use Bluesky and Mastodon via website. That way it’s a poor experience and I’m more likely to stop using it.
- I used to use Quiche browser (discovered via Installer!). I had it configured with the few websites I frequent and set the UI to be able to quickly (see second screenshot) open them. After the switch to Pixel, I dropped the Quiche browser and installed my favorite websites as apps on my phone.
- For AI I currently use Claude. I was using ChatGPT before, but nowadays use the Claude Max subscription to be able to leverage Claude Code for programming, so switched my personal AI use to Claude too.
- Arc is on my homescreen because the iOS app is amazing: it is not a browser. Instead, it shows all my bookmarks from my desktop. When opening a bookmark on my phone, and it’s supported by a native app (e.g., Google Docs), it will actually open that app. Extremely useful as my way to organize files across different platforms. I also use Arc on the desktop and am already mourning the day that The Browser Company is going to stop updating it.
- Obsidian I use for notes. I only recently started to use it, and that’s actually because of the relaunch of the Pebble watches and the rise of AI. Pebble watches don’t work well on iOS because of the limited access third-party apps have. And it made me realize that Apple Notes has the same limitations. I need open systems so I don’t have to wait for the maker of my hardware/software to do cool things. So I switched to Obsidian, which stores all my notes in folders with Markdown files. The action button is mapped to allow me to quickly write down a note without seeing all my other notes. I wrote a small script that allows me to add AI instructions within folders in my notes, and whenever I update a note, it will automatically run Claude Code to follow my instructions. For example, my shopping list is automatically categorized and action items are gathered at the top of my personal meeting notes.
I also asked Paulus to share a few things he’s into right now. Here’s what he said:
- AI! Claude Code is amazing. Being able to have it work on an issue while I’m in meetings and quickly giving it some feedback between meetings has made me finish things I wouldn’t have had time for otherwise. I also love using Claude Code with my 7-year-old, pushing our imagination to see what Claude comes up with. The other day we made a pong game that would change the color of the light via Home Assistant on every ball bounce.
- Z-Wave. We just launched the Home Assistant Connect ZWA-2, our take on making the best antenna for this smart home standard. It’s huge, over a foot, and it can reach all the devices everywhere.
- Catching up with friends and family. We live in Brooklyn but spend our summers in Europe, taking full advantage of remote working. Spend time in the Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, and Denmark.
- Season three of Foundation on Apple TV Plus is again excellent.
Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email [email protected] with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on The Verge, this post on Threads, and this post on Bluesky.
“Some sequel to an indie game about a bug.” — DuckInAPond
“I got tired of streaming music and all the ephemeral aspects of it so I bought a semi-janky MP3 player (they call them DAPs now, I guess) and I’m building a FLAC collection (shoutout to Bandcamp and my vinyl collection). I’m back to organizing id3 tags 🤘” — William
“I came across a documentary over the weekend about Python, the programming language, and thought it was worth sharing. I’m not a developer myself, but I found it really engaging. It tells the story of how this small, quiet language grew to shape areas like climate science, astrophysics, crypto, and AI. The film also touches on some serious conflicts in the community that almost caused it to fracture, and it made me reflect on how different the tech world might be today if that had happened. Even if you’re not a developer, it’s surprisingly compelling.” — Hayley
“This week I wasted time trying out a new RSS app. It was not quite working so I ended up adding a load of side services until I realised that my existing solution does all these things better. So I just want to give some extra love to Reeder. Everything I need in an RSS reader app.” — Chris
“I’ve become a big fan of architecture and interior design videos. It’s so fascinating seeing the walk-throughs and hearing commentary of the architects and designers about their own works and of notable works from others. Favorite channels include Archimarathon, Architectural Digest, Design Anthology, Design Seed, and Open Space.” — Sunlight Express
“I am not a birdwatcher but I do love a great film. This one about birdwatching is the film of the year.” — Michael
“You might dig this funny and not super serious, very well done birdwatching documentary.” — Andrew
“Super into this (relatively) new post-hardcore band Static Dress. Particularly their newest song ‘face.’ It’s just peak 2000’s screamy music with modern production and sensibilities. Really great all around.” — cowboyxboombap
“Listening to NTS Radio lately. Great DJ mix shows. Incredible, never paid for something faster. App is solid. The NTS Breakfast Show w/ Flo is very popular and that seems earned!” — yatrik
I’ve touched on it a bit already, but there was a lot of interesting stuff announced at the IFA show in Berlin this year, including robot vacuums that can climb stairs, a bunch of new smart lights, and even a few party speakers. The show kind of feels like a midyear CES. We rounded up some of the coolest stuff, but if you want to read all of our coverage, you can find that here.
David will see you all next week!
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